American megafaunal extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
American megafaunal extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene
（Vertebrate paleobiology and paleoanthropology）
Springer, c2009
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The volume contains summaries of facts, theories, and unsolved problems pertaining to the unexplained extinction of dozens of genera of mostly large terrestrial mammals, which occurred ca. 13,000 calendar years ago in North America and about 1,000 years later in South America. Another equally mysterious wave of extinctions affected large Caribbean islands around 5,000 years ago. The coupling of these extinctions with the earliest appearance of human beings has led to the suggestion that foraging humans are to blame, although major climatic shifts were also taking place in the Americas during some of the extinctions. The last published volume with similar (but not identical) themes -- Extinctions in Near Time -- appeared in 1999; since then a great deal of innovative, exciting new research has been done but has not yet been compiled and summarized. Different chapters in this volume provide in-depth resumes of the chronology of the extinctions in North and South America, the possible insights into animal ecology provided by studies of stable isotopes and anatomical/physiological characteristics such as growth increments in mammoth and mastodont tusks, the clues from taphonomic research about large-mammal biology, the applications of dating methods to the extinctions debate, and archeological controversies concerning human hunting of large mammals.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction to the volume, Gary Haynes
Chapter 2: Sudden deaths: the chronology of Terminal Pleistocene megafaunal extinction, Stuart Fiedel
Chapter 3: Estimates of Clovis-era megafaunal populations and their extinction risks, Gary Haynes
Chapter 4: Paleobiology and extinction of proboscideans in the Great Lakes region of North America, Daniel C. Fisher
Chapter 5: Human prey choice in the Late Pleistocene and its relation to megafaunal extinctions, Todd A. Surovell and Nicole M. Waguespack
Chapter 6: Ancient DNA and the genetic consequences of Late Pleistocene extinctions, Alex D. Greenwood
Chapter 7: Did humans cause the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene mammalian extinctions in South America in a context of shrinking open areas? Alberto L. Cione, Eduardo P. Tonni, and Leopoldo Soibelzon
Chapter 8: The elusive evidence: the archeological record of the South American extinct megamammals, Luis Alberto Borrero
Chapter 9: Insulae infortunatae: establishing a chronology for Late Quaternary mammal extinctions in the West Indies, R.D.E. MacPhee
Chapter 10: Afterword, and thoughts about the future literature, Gary Haynes
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